My TM Story – Wendy Greasamar

By Wendy Greasamar

Saturday, March 26, 2016, started just like any other day. It was my annual spa day with my mom. We had done this for years: massages, manicures, pedicures, lunch, mother-daughter time, and relaxation that this tired mother of an (at the time) 10-month-old and 4-year-old desperately wanted. We had a wonderful day, I remember commenting how the massage was one of the best I had ever had. Generally, after our mother-daughter spa days, I am SO relaxed that if I make it home during the kids’ nap time I will join them. On this day, I did just that, making it home in time to lay down in the recliner and rest with my son.

After a while, he woke up and needed a diaper change. I attempted to stand up with him and realized that my entire left arm had gone numb and I had a sharp pain in my chest. At first, I thought it was from laying down with him, though I had not been holding him on my left side. The numbness was not going away, and the pain in my chest was intensifying. I sent my daughter out to grab my husband, who was working outside. At this point, I thought I could be having a heart attack and told him I needed to get to the hospital. When I arrived at the hospital that evening, they began to run electrocardiograms (EKGs), computed tomography scans (CT), and blood work, thinking I could be having cardiac issues. When the results came back that I was not having cardiac issues but I was still in a lot of pain, I was given A LOT of medicine for pain, four narcotics, to be exact. In the emergency room, I lost function from my chest down. I was sent home, unable to lift myself into our car. My husband had to carry me into our house that night and upstairs to bed. I thought I was having a bad reaction to all the medication I received and that once the medicine wore off I would begin to regain function and feeling. I kept waiting and waiting.

I woke up on Easter Sunday, March 27, unable to walk. I pulled myself with my arms to our stairs and scooted down. I was determined, I wanted to see my son open his first Easter basket. I wanted to see my children in their Easter dress clothes. I wanted to attend Easter service with my family. I wanted to host Easter dinner. That was the plan. That was MY plan. However, it did not happen as I had envisioned. I can’t recall watching my children open their Easter baskets, as I was very tired and scared. I couldn’t focus on much else. I was not able to go to church, so my parents took our children. The most I saw of their Easter outfits was when I turned my head to my right and saw them sitting on the couch, as that was all I could move. Thankfully, I have pictures. My family, my wonderful support system, stepped up and made Easter dinner since I could not, and my husband focused on me. Using our computer chair, he wheeled me into the dining room so I could join our family for dinner. However I could not hold myself upright long enough to eat, so he took me back to the recliner. That night my husband had to “bathe” me by wiping me down with soap and water on a washcloth. I couldn’t take a bath or shower on my own. I could not even go to the bathroom as my bowel and bladder function had ceased. We decided if there was no improvement, we would go to a different hospital in the morning.

By Monday, March 28, 2016, there had been no improvement. I was up most of the night scared and uncomfortable. My mom came over to watch the kids while my husband took me to a different hospital’s emergency room (ER). I kept thinking to myself, “Maybe I am crazy. If I really think about it hard enough, maybe I can move.” I was wheeled into a room in the ER, where I met Dr. Lesley Perez. I thank God often that she was working on the day I came in. As she began to examine me and ask me questions, she mentioned a condition called Transverse Myelitis, and based on what I was describing, she was going to order tests to investigate that further. I had a CT scan first, which showed that my bladder was severely distended after not urinating for almost 48 hours. That was followed by a 3-hour magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) from head to toe. I had never had an MRI before, so when the technicians asked if I was claustrophobic, I told them no. I quickly discovered that I was indeed claustrophobic. They asked if I would like to listen to music while I was “in the tube.” I chose my favorite genre: country. Things didn’t start out so well when the first song was Kenny Chesney’s “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven (but Nobody Wanna Go Now).” Brad Paisley’s, “When I Get Where I’m Going” followed shortly after. I had never heard so many songs related to death. I made it through the MRI, and by the time I got back to my room in the ER, my mom was waiting with my husband.

After an hour had passed, Dr. Perez came in to speak with me about my MRI results. Just as she had suspected, my MRIs showed lesions on my cervical spine (C5-C7), indicating that I likely had Transverse Myelitis. Dr. Perez and my ER nurse both knew about Transverse Myelitis but did not know much about it. Neither myself nor my family had heard of it before, so naturally, what did we ALL do? Get on our phones and Google it! I turned to my husband and my mom and asked if either of them read anywhere that this condition was fatal. They assured me they had not seen that anywhere. Dr. Perez came back to tell me that I would need to be transported to the Neuroscience Center at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. As Dr. Perez was about to say goodbye to me, she asked if I was a believer and if she could pray over me. I must admit that I was taken aback by this, as no doctor had ever offered to do this for me before. My initial thought was, “I must be REALLY bad off…or a goner.” However, as she prayed over me, and I prayed with her, I felt a sense of peace that I had not felt in almost 48 hours.

The road ahead of me was uncertain, yet I no longer felt the strong sense of fear I had earlier. My mind shifted from worry to, “ok, what do I need to do to get better?” My disposition was good, and most importantly, my humor was still intact. Upon arriving at Riverside, I gained more knowledge of the journey I was facing, at least in the short term. I would be in the hospital for at least a week receiving 1 hour, 1000mg intravenous
steroid treatments a day to reduce the inflammation in my spine. I also had physical and occupational therapy in the hospital, and a period spent in an in-patient rehabilitation facility. This all happened after a “welcome” lumbar puncture. I had no problem lying flat after that.